D&D 5E 3rd Party Campaign Settings?

[Eilathen]

Is there a listing somewhere of all the available Campaign Settings out for DnD 5e?

I'm mainly looking for new worlds to explore. I'm less interested in cities and smaller stuff. I want a big fat book of world lore and history to dig in

Thanks in advance for any pointers and any and all tales of well written and thought-out worlds (to be perfectly honest, it doesn't even need to be for DnD...but as DnD is the biggest brand, I thought I'd start the thread here... ).

 

[J.Quondam]

There's a wiki here on ENWorld that is updated fairly regularly. It might be of some use to you.

D&D 5E Games & Settings

A list of official D&D 5E settings, plus stand-alone games and campaign settings by third party publishers. Third-party games and settings are produced using the Open Gaming License, and use the D&D 5E ruleset to explore new genres and worlds. The most common setting theme is Ancient Greek...

www.enworld.org

 

[Eilathen]

Thank you for pointing this out, it helps quite a bit.

It's not complete but i guess that's not surprising if we consider the amount of new stuff coming out all the time (especially all the KS projects for 5e).

So any of you know of/ or backed the KS for any of these 5e projects (if so, please tell me more about it) :

• Exalted Vales
• Soulmist
• Tanares

 

[LordEntrails]

It's a wiki, so you can update it with the settings you know of.

 

[Cadence]

(to be perfectly honest, it doesn't even need to be for DnD...but as DnD is the biggest brand, I thought I'd start the thread here... ).

Most aren't 5e and some aren't 3rd party, but here are 250+...

How many fantasy worlds are there anyways? Post one.

I've heard this since I was a child that there was a saturation of fantasy worlds and it's only gotten greater over time. So let's find out how many by posting one at a time. Stipulations 1. must be published. I'm sure your home brew game is absolutely amazing, but we have to draw the line...

www.enworld.org

 

[humble minion]

So any of you know of/ or backed the KS for any of these 5e projects (if so, please tell me more about it) :

• Exalted Vales
• Soulmist
• Tanares

I backed Tanares but it's a long way from release yet. About a month and a half after their two million plus dollar kickstarter closed, they announced that they'd be putting the RPG component on hold while they finished the board game component. We're now nine months past the estimated fulfilment date and we only just got the first beta test material.

Yeah, bit of buyers' remorse on that one. If a small backyard kickstarter by a newbie publisher goes way overtime, I can deal. When a multimillion dollar kickstarter with some of the biggest names in the industry does the same, and clearly does so in order to prioritise customers for a product other than the one I backed, it leaves a distinctly bad taste in the mouth. Oh well. Buyer beware, lesson learned etc.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Zeitgeist!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Zeitgeist!

Absolutely seconded. While I think it is a better fit for 4e than 5e, it's still a well-made campaign from everything I've heard. (I try not to look too deep into it just in case I ever get the chance to play it.)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Absolutely seconded. While I think it is a better fit for 4e than 5e, it's still a well-made campaign from everything I've heard. (I try not to look too deep into it just in case I ever get the chance to play it.)

I own it for 4e, and I support patreon mostly for my 5e versions (and for bribing morrus to pay for this place).

We could not play it in 4e, but it works great in 5e too.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Absolutely seconded. While I think it is a better fit for 4e than 5e, it's still a well-made campaign from everything I've heard. (I try not to look too deep into it just in case I ever get the chance to play it.)

In LevelUp you can buy the whole setting that does not spoil too much of the actual adventure. It is set a couple of year after the adventure. It is just that when you later play the adventure, don't be confused that some lore changed in between those presentations of the setting. Everything has a reason.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm actually burned out on 3PP kickstarters for 5E. Mostly because of how long it seems to bloody take to come out.

I may do one or two more backings this year, but after that, I'm taking a break from it.

 

[Eilathen]

I backed Tanares but it's a long way from release yet. About a month and a half after their two million plus dollar kickstarter closed, they announced that they'd be putting the RPG component on hold while they finished the board game component. We're now nine months past the estimated fulfilment date and we only just got the first beta test material.

Yeah, bit of buyers' remorse on that one. If a small backyard kickstarter by a newbie publisher goes way overtime, I can deal. When a multimillion dollar kickstarter with some of the biggest names in the industry does the same, and clearly does so in order to prioritise customers for a product other than the one I backed, it leaves a distinctly bad taste in the mouth. Oh well. Buyer beware, lesson learned etc.

Wow, so sorry to hear. And thanks for the heads-up. I will not give those folks any money, so no Tanares for me. If i hate anything, than it is companies who do not appreciate their customers.
I have had enough extremely late/subpar/non delivering KS experiences as well. The fact that KS is not held to higher standards (especially when it comes to non-delivering "creators") is disturbing and i have more or less given up on it as a customer.

 

[Incenjucar]

Wow, so sorry to hear. And thanks for the heads-up. I will not give those folks any money, so no Tanares for me. If i hate anything, than it is companies who do not appreciate their customers.
I have had enough extremely late/subpar/non delivering KS experiences as well. The fact that KS is not held to higher standards (especially when it comes to non-delivering "creators") is disturbing and i have more or less given up on it as a customer.

While I have no visibility into this project, a lot of projects in all places in the industry run into planning failures or unexpected events. Figuring out realistic dates is a skill, and even the best planners can't prevent randomness from ruining their schedule.

 

[humble minion]

While I have no visibility into this project, a lot of projects in all places in the industry run into planning failures or unexpected events. Figuring out realistic dates is a skill, and even the best planners can't prevent randomness from ruining their schedule.

Yeah, I'm usually pretty tolerant about kickstarters missing dates. Smaller companies or first-timers are extraordinarily vulnerable to slippage due to real-life problems affecting production, issues with art arriving on time, supply chain issues etc etc. I've backed some kickstarters which are running over a year late, and I'm mostly ok with that. Communicate with me and be honest about the issues and I won't be too cranky. It's just the fact that Dragori raised so damn much money for this project, and then just blatantly put the RPG customers in the fridge while they prioritised the board game, which got on my nerves.

I'm actually burned out on 3PP kickstarters for 5E. Mostly because of how long it seems to bloody take to come out.

I may do one or two more backings this year, but after that, I'm taking a break from it.

During lockdown, I developed a probably-unhealthy hobby of backing RPG kickstarters. I've slowed down a lot now, but I've still got loads of books pending from that fairly epic binge. Tanares is one that in the cold light of day probably looks a little bit generic and I might not have bothered with in regular times, but que sera sera.

 

[renbot]

I'm going to plug the Midgard Campaign Setting from Kobold Press. One of the most flavorful and fun campaign settings I've used in a while. A dragon empire, a Egyptian-adjacent empire, an undead kingdom encroaching into its neighbors, Amazonians (or near enough), Norse dwarves, etc.

Unfortunately, while KP is excellent at flavor and "fluff" (not the term I wanted but it is the only one I can remember to contrast "crunch"), it's "crunch" is VERY hit-or-miss: poorly balanced, spells and subclasses that try to cover every eventuality, magic subsystems that are very ponderous. I think it is a side-effect of putting out TONS of material to support the setting, but it can be kind of a mess.

That being said, I ran a nearly 3-year campaign using none of their races/subclasses and a very limited selection of spells and it went great. Note that the main campaign setting book as NO crunch as it is designed to be compatible with D&D, PF, probably others.